What Happens When: "We are Missionaries, NOT wizards"

Chomriab SUA everyone!!!! suisaday! soksabaay tee?

Hello Everyone, Hi! are you happy? (cambodian greetings are really kind)

So this week was insane. And went by super fast! I can't believe I have been in the MTC for almost 2 whole weeks! This place is magical. Again. HPis my favorite thing and sometimes being in the MTC feels a bit like a being a first year at hogwarts. Also, if you say words that mean Faith, Missionary, and Hope in Khmer with your best Harry- does- the- patronus-voice, it sounds so legit. We discovered this on our temple walk yesterday, and our district leader had to remind us "we are missionaries, NOT wizards". Tomato/ tomatoe Livosa/ Liviossaaa.. We're here to save the world so... It's fine. wizards basically do the same thing right?. We find our own ways to entertain each other daily.

It really is amazing how much you can learn in one week. I guess we did teach our first investigator ALL in Khmer/Khmae (cambodian) the 2nd day here!!!

This week some miracles happened. both with our investigators and for our district in learning the language and building our knowledge of the gospel!

Spiritual:

"ponderize me sista!" (crunchatize me capt!... ok ok its dumb, we get a lil bit creative in our 16 hour long day)

If any of you missed out on General Conference, try to watch it because let me first say WOW. What a blessing! but also, I hope if you did watch it you took Elder Durrant's challenge to "ponderize" a scripture every week. This will be my goal for the next 18 months!

The scripture I chose last week was 2 Nephi 31:20 and this week I am memorizing Moroni 10:32. I would love if you would all tell me what scriptures you are doing and what you have learned or loved about it! I LOVE SCRIPTURES more than almost anything.... MTC frosted flakes are a close 2nd though... jk. Also, I would be SO happy to send any of you a Book of Mormon of your own if you wish to have one to follow along if I write scriptures in my letters:) just let me know!

This week oh my goodness,we were so lucky to have Sister Linda K. Burton (Relief Society General President) visit us and give a devotional. She said some amazing things, and since yall don't get to be here with me, I would like to share just a few:

"How is the calling of the Christ, the prophet, and missionaries the same?" - I love this. We have some very big differences, but we are all called to do the same: show love, guidence, and invite others to come unto Him!

"When Pres. Monson was giving his talk, did it cross your mind that he is a living prophet that loves us and guides us?" When we all saw how much of a struggle the last 4 mins of his talk were, what was the first thing that came to mind? "Do you appreciate what you have?" or do we take the living prophet called of God for our guidence for granted? She was very kind and blunt about this quote, but it really hit home and was a bit of a wake up call that President Monson is a true prophet and we need to appreciate all he has done. He is an amazing man and we are so fortunate to have him lead us!

She also said to us missionaries, "If you had any idea how important you are to the apostles, you would never do anything wrong again". WOW. MISSIONARY FRIENDS - WE ARE SO LOVED!

This Sunday was DA BESTTTTT. Our branch presidency is amazing! the 2nd counselor is this amazing Chinese man from singapore/australia named Brother Seow. He is a man of wisdom and can make me cry "spiritual tears" with his words more than anyone I've ever met. Besides my mommy and daddy maybe. LUV YOU. anyway, He's heaven sent.

Also, Brother Moon and Sister Moon, 1st counselors in Branch and RS, were the last mission presidents in Cambodia and just got back in July. They know so much about Cambodia (obvi) and so Sister Moon sometimes walks back with us to our residence and we have a little sisters chat on our dorm floor and she tells us stories and fun facts about cambodia! Love that! know what else I love? on sundays, church is really fun here. because we all have sacrament meeting and then go straight to lunch down the hall from the chapel! BEST SCHEDULE EVER. and then we have RS in our classroom building and then have a fun little discussion with our district - I think that's supposed to by sunday school or something. I LOVE IT! I learn so much! but also, Its very nice and I have a better time paying attention when it's all split up like that :)

Can I just say WOW I LOVE the Book of Mormon. It is amazing in every way. my new goal with Sister Brown (comp) is to read each day in personal and companion stud. We think of a question, even if it's like super simple like "how to stay awake in class" and we pray and then we read. And guess what? it doesn't even matter what story we are reading. If we pray with faith and sincerity to receive answers, that's exactly what we get! ANSWERS! I challenge all of you to try it. Even if it's been a while, or maybe you read every single day, I honestly promise that reading the Book of Mormon will bless you to be happy, guided, and find peace in this crazy world we live in!

Comments about the Firehydrant are SOO true. The Spirit here hits you hard in the face, you get a little bit of water, but it mostly just drenches your soul. For real, its not the drought/thunderstorm we sometimes feel when we go through the normal everyday routine. Its like a constant trickle of rain drops and then BOOM the rain is leaking from your eyes because you can't contain yourself. haha. Dont worry though, I cry 24/7. Not because I'm sad, homesick or having a hard day. NOPE. I'm constantly crying because my companion is the most hilarious sister on the planet and sitting in class with my district (elders and sisters learning cambodian with me) is a literal ab workout of laughter. ALL day. ALL the time. I dunno what I would do without them! Exception: I only cry when we are sitting outside for companion study time and we can hear the roars of the roc crowd everytime there's a touchdown at the BYU game... not gonna lie... it hurts! I miss being a coug! haha All of you at BYU, Cheer double this week. 1 for you, 1 for me.

The language is coming! the alphabet...I don't even have time to describe it to you... its um FUN. go look up the romanized and then the script. It's joyful! haha We are learning how to read Khmer now! and just so you know, they don't read straight down the line like in english. They literally read in a spiral like fashion. take a pen, draw a metal bouncy spring from right to left and that's about how the reading path is in Khmer! HEHEHE. Maybe you knew, maybe you didn't but in my past life (the 19 yrs when I wasn't in the MTC :) ) I spoke korean, read korean, wrote korean, and even knew a bit of Japanese. well guess what. Not much has changed haha. I answer in korean to my Khmer Lokkruu hauy Neakruu (teachers) at least 3 times a day. I also can say hi and carry a conversation with the Koreans and Japanese Missionaries better than I can in Khmer... it's a blessing and a curse! When I make flash cards, I write the pronunciation in korean so I can get the vowel more "asian like" except that khmer has sounds like Doich neh (german much?) Saasnaakunkarei (Japanse much) and Haet Avei? (French much?) haha It's nothing like any other asian language I've ever heard. we are even required to roll our Rs.... which I can't do yet either. BUT. I'm learning, slowly and surely, and I'm actually pretty good speaking in only Khmer since we only SAYALO (speak your language) 12+ hours a day. No english. If I start sounding funny even in my email, don't be alarmed. Be proud!

Our investigator this week was Vibol. we taught him 4 times and he even committed to being baptized at our last lesson! Khnom Srl)~n Vibol!!! (I LOVE VIBOL) yes we have that "enyay" thingy from spanish too. but then guess what happened... He walked into class the next day because Vibol is actually Lokkruu Mickleson - the Khmer teacher.... well, it was too good to be true! I did learn so much from teaching him! Our new investigators are Soknii and Radii. Actually, I have to teach in like an hour soo.... gotta be fast. But we are going to teach wihtout any language notes today and see how it goes. I feel so much more guided and inspired when we teach this way instead of just reading a "planned lesson script" thing.

Some Funnies to end my gigantor letter. I apologize. I was efficiently fast at typing so I just wrote a TON. Dont worry though, not all emails are going to be this fun and long. sorry...

We do these Sisters Only workouts in the gym at 6:00 am with these mom instructors. wednesday was zumba/80s/techno/sprinting/can-can/disco dancing. and It couldn't have gotten any better. no better way to start the 16 hour work day.

Boiled eggs - um they're nasty and all I eat cuz rubber stakes and un-cooked potatoes only get you so far... it may be a long 9 weeks without my kimchi. and you KNOW I love kimchi.

You don't know how much you used to use technology until someone at the temple asks you to take a picture of them with their phone... like where's the button on that thing? seriously. no techno is the best techno I probably get so much more done and sleep WAY better than you all. When our teachers were like "lets watch this 1..5 minute video clip" we all got some pang of joy... and couldn't contain the excitement.

I love you all so much! thanks for all the emails and letters and packages! I'm out of time so I will try to respond next week or throughout the week.

I miss you all! please remember to turn our in your trials and do something nice for others this week.

I watched "the Character of Christ by Elder Bednar" yesterday. My life is changed. Please, please, if you would like, i invite you to watch it as well! look it up online. lds.org

Happy week to you all!

your sister in love and gratitude,

"Sistah" Haddock